Chapter Three: Give in to the Darkness

I sprint after Sonic back for the bridge. I'll give him credit for that much, for his willingness to fill the rest of us in. Normally when a wildly dangerous plan comes to him, he executes on it without hesitating long enough to take feedback from the rest of us. Not that he's told me the plan yet. We definitely don't have the time for him to explain things twice.

My lungs ache with all the running, though this is certainly not the most running I've ever done. But my lungs are already compressed with stress. Fear strangles me. I reach out for any fraction of hope, no matter how small. It's better than the darkness bearing down on us.

We're going to die.

After all we've done. After all we've been through. After beating the Metarex so many times. After years of torture and defeat. After giving up Angel. After almost giving up Sonic.

And now we're going to die.

So apparently that fraction of hope really isn't enough to outpace the darkness.

Amy skidded onto the backup bridge after Sonic, not exactly hot on his heels but as fast as she could manage. Cosmo, standing behind Tails with her hands pressed to her heart, looked up as they dashed in. But Tails's eyes remained locked on the screen in front of him. "Report!" he barked.

"Do you want the bad news first? Or the bad news?" Amy choked. Even though she knew they were far past the time for jokes, Amy's cynicism was the last part of her personality remaining in the midst of crisis.

"What's wrong?" Tails's eyes didn't leave his screen for a moment.

Sonic said, "The X-Tornado and Hyper Tornado are both too damaged to fly."

And finally, Tails hesitated. He pulled his eyes away from his screen and paled. "So what have we got?" he asked, his voice suddenly so much smaller than it had been before.

"A really crazy Plan Z," Sonic replied. "Probably one of the worst I've ever had. But it's that, or just Cream's ship against a Metarex armada."

"Which is…?" Tails said.

Sonic turned to face the screen that displayed the armada of Metarex between the stars. He took a slow step forward. He reached up and balled his hand into a fist against his chest. "Do you feel it?" he asked, closing his eyes.

The sudden almost-reverence in Sonic's voice sent a chill rolling up Amy's spine. She stepped forward to stand at Sonic's side so her fingertips brushed against his. In response, Sonic stretched out his fingers so Amy could weave hers between his. And when he closed his hand, he built a bridge between what he could feel and her.

A bucket of ice water dumped over her head.

Amy stumbled back gasping, ripping her hand from Sonic's in the process. The sensation evaporated the moment she broke her connection to Sonic. "What is that?" Amy demanded breathlessly.

"Our only shot of getting out of here," Sonic explained. "The Metarex have fake Chaos Emeralds."

"No," Tails said firmly, returning his now shaking hands to the keyboard in front of him. "Messing with something so volatile and untested will only get us killed."

"I know," Sonic agreed. "I'm the last person that would want to try this. But we've got about thirty seconds between us and death so I think it's about time to learn to make some compromises."

Amy's eyes moved from Tails to Sonic to the view of the Metarex growing ever closer back to Sonic. Tension built in her throat and she couldn't swallow it back down. "What's your idea, Sonic?" she asked slowly, carefully.

His eyes snapped to her face, and she willed her expression not to change. Why did the look on Sonic's face make him look so much like a stranger? Why did this feel so much like an ending?

"Real Chaos Emeralds can teleport you," Sonic explained. "Fake ones can too. We just need to tap into the Energy."

"How?" Amy said. "Even if it is possible, it's not like we have the fake Emeralds on board. The Metarex might be close in terms of space, but the distance between us is still technically huge."

But Sonic just shook his head. "The power answers a call. And with that much power and all three of us, it's the best chance we've got."

Amy's eyes cut over to Tails, only to see his eyes also cut over to her. For a moment, Amy held his gaze. Tension creased the young fox's face—how could Tails ever have looked this young?—knowing that it probably matched the look on her own face. Both of them had seen the monster Sonic had become under the influence of the fake Chaos Emeralds. What might become of all of them if they tried something so dangerous?

Sonic spinning around to face the Metarex once more snapped her attention away from Tails and to the blue hedgehog she loved. Not because she needed him. But because she wanted him.

And she wanted a life that spanned beyond this moment.

Amy stepped forward and took Sonic's hand again. "No time to waste," she agreed. "But I need you to lead the way. I can't even connect to real Chaos Emeralds on my own."

In response, Sonic squeezed her hand. And then, Amy watched him turn to Tails and offer his other hand. "I won't make you, buddy. I know I'm not as smart as you and I might be missing something, but I think Plan Z is all we have left."

Tails pressed his lips together, staring at the hand offered to him. "You're plenty smart, Sonic," Tails said after a moment. "Which is exactly why I know I should be scared of this."

But then he stepped forward and accepted Sonic's outstretched palm.

Sonic's eyes snapped forward again. "Okay. So we're going to have to teleport the Blue Typhoon plus Eggman's ship, since it's still attached, and we're going to have to get it all to some part of space where we can disappear before the Metarex have a chance to find us again."

"You've never done anything like this before, have you?" Amy realized, a chill sweeping through her lungs.

"No time like the present," Sonic grunted but for once, those words didn't bring to life a smile on Sonic's face.

So Amy couldn't quite explain why that was the moment she closed her eyes. But beside her, apparently Sonic had the same idea because only a handful of seconds passed before she felt the warmth of Sonic's Chaos Energy bleeding into her skin, diving down to seek Amy's own Chaos Energy.

"You're going to be afraid," Sonic said slowly. But it didn't sound like he stood beside her anymore. Rather, his voice echoed from all around her. Was she herself anymore? Was he him? For an instant, Amy wanted to allow her eyes to flash back open. But they didn't have time for mistakes. So she just kept her eyes glued closed as Sonic continued speaking. "The fake Emeralds are almost more easily influenced by emotions than real ones. Be ready for that."

Especially bad emotions, Amy thought but didn't say, even though Sonic's experience with the fake Chaos Emeralds certainly confirmed so.

Sirens exploded across the backup bridge. Amy jumped, but Sonic tightened his grip on her hand, as if in reminder to not lose her focus.

"They're within range now," Tails reported tightly from Sonic's other side.

Amy twisted her hand in Sonic's only so she could thread her fingers between his. The bones within their knuckles collided with each other. And the small spark of discomfort refocused her.

Using both Sonic's and her own Chaos Energy as a guide, she directed the attention of her dormant Chaos Energy to the fake Chaos Emeralds within the Metarex armada. She gasped involuntarily as the cold Energy flooded her veins. A shiver ran across the surface of her skin. Possibly in response, Sonic's grip on her hand only tightened further.

This was the manufactured power of the fake Chaos Emeralds? Though it responded to the Chaos Energy at Amy's core, it felt nothing like the warm Energy pulsing through her body when they had used the seven real Chaos Emeralds to stand against Rusted Maple. It felt more like the touch of ice from when her craft had crashed to a planet in the midst of a blizzard. It felt like breathing in the snow-soaked air and knowing your end was nigh.

"Sonic!" Tails gasped from Sonic's other side, sounding how Amy felt within.

"They work like real Chaos Emeralds," Sonic insisted. "This will work."

A blast exploded against the side of the ship, sending tremors spreading throughout it. Amy's eyes flew open and she saw just how close the Metarex were, just how many were that close. She wanted to cry out in panic, but her voice choked in her throat. Thoughts halted in her head. Words failed her.

All that remained was feeling.

Feelings she struggled to describe with words. Maybe it was the touch of the false Chaos Energy manipulating her. Cold and breathless and tension. Feeling like she needed to run but legs turned leaden. Hope dead in her chest while she reached out to cling to it with her hands.

"You have to feel it!' Sonic exclaimed suddenly. But Amy couldn't turn to look at him; her eyes were trapped staring at the Metarex that would end them all. "You have to let it hurt until you can't deal with it anymore."

As if Amy had any power to stand against the way she felt. A chasm yawned open within her chest and between the ridges a black hole roared to life. Her hand in Sonic's tightened until she couldn't feel him beside her anymore.

Nothing. There was nothing that remained. No hope. Just the cold and the dark.

But that was the moment an impossible light swallowed them all.